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Sunday, July 27, 2014

More Than This (review)

4.5/5 stars

More Than This (Goodreads | Amazon) is a complicated book to review. It's the type of book that you just need to jump into without any real expectations and perceptions. Too much information might impact your reading experience, or worse, quasi-spoil this book for you. However, this is a book review blog so I guess I have to tell you something.

Patrick Ness is a brilliant young adult writer. He has few rivals, especially considering the originality of his works. Ness gave us the brilliant dystopian Chaos Walking Trilogy, then the heart-wrenching novel about cancer and grief, A Monster Calls. He writes characters that are complicated and diverse, no cookie-cutter suburbanites here. His books have a tendency to punch you in the gut/rip out your heart, because he doesn't hold back for the reader's sake.

I'm going to assume it's safe to give you the basic synopsis (summarized from Goodreads). This book begins with Seth drowning, crushed beneath the waves at the bottom of the ocean. But for this story, that's only the beginning because the next thing you know Seth wakes up and he's somewhere else, somewhere vaguely familiar. He doesn't know where he is, if it's hell, purgatory or a dream.

That's all you're getting from me. Just read the damn book already. Trust me on that.